A lot of you may have heard me use the word “misogyny” before and were either confused or found it too harsh for what I was describing. Yes, misogyny basically means “hatred for women” (as opposed to Philogyny- the fondness, love or admiration of women).
Yes, misogyny might sound a bit harsh, but so are the consequences of it.
OHIP (the Ontario Health Insurance Program) now wants women to pay for pap smears. As of Jan 2013, OHIP will only cover one pap every three years. The likely charge for a pap smear is 20$. Women with abnormal pap smears and who have doctors who order the exam do not have to pay.
Now, there are many arguments which make this a sound [short-term] financial decision. Health authorities [1] say that women should be tested every 3-5 years for cervical cancer and, therefore, there would not really be any need to test more often.
To be clear, I want to criticize the gap between scientific knowledge and the barriers they face in real life to maintain their health. (I am NOT disregarding science. I am saying that these guidelines should have stayed at just that- guidelines- they should not have added a financial barrier for women. OHIP’s regulation is congruent with science, but NOT congruent with how women actually live their lives and the medical system at present).
Fact: Against popular belief, women are NOT lining up to get pap smears done. In general, going to a cold, sterile doctor’s office; spreading your legs against metal stirrups while you lay your back on crinkled paper; and having a stranger clamp your vagina open while they stick foreign swabs against your cervix is NOT what I call an enjoyable experience. Women DO NOT line up to do this. In fact, ask any many women- they will dread and avoid this exam and would rather NOT do it. Bottom line is that women are hardly burdening the health system with pap smears. In fact, women are underutilizing their ability to get them.
Fact: The swab taken from a woman’s cervix will likely test for Cervical Cancer, HPV and STDs/STIs [2]. These are important tests for women to get annually. Again- underutilized by women.
Fact: Men are more likely to be asymptomatic for STDs/STIs and are often also carriers without knowing it or having any detrimental effect on their general health. Why does this matter? It matters because men and women have sexual contact. Women are likely to receive these STD’s and STIs and experience more serious health risks than men if they are not tested annually.
Fact: Annual testing is GOOD prevention and good practice of harm reduction for the spread of sexually transmitted diseases/infections, including HPV, which may be responsible for cervical cancer.
Fact: This only affects women’s health. This new restriction can only have detrimental impacts on empowered women who are proactive on maintaining their health. This real-life result can only be a greater barrier for women to get tested.
Sure, it will save Ontario money in current lab costs… but how much will you accrue due to cervical cancer and other STI/STD -related problems? [4]
Misogyny can look like a lot of things. Some of us know it as an overtly or covertly sexist workplace environment; describing women as “sluts” with certain choices of dress; sexual assault; or perhaps a husband beating his wife…. However you have envisioned “misogyny” in your head- let there be no mistake that the common foundation of misogyny includes societal and systemic practices that have a detrimental impact on women’s safety and well-being. So if there is a law/regulation that can ONLY have the result of creating barriers ONLY against women’s health? THAT is what misogyny looks like.
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[1] Addendum Fact: When Health Authorities say that women only need to be checked every three years, this is the “average” woman. We make a lot of assumptions when we describe “the normal woman”. In fact, she is likely to be a mythical character; and ideological fiction: White, privileged women, first crush at 12; holding hands at 13; first kiss at 14; “second base” at 16 and first sexual experience in late teens to early university. She then dates around and only has monogamous long-term sexual relationships and then finally finds the love of her life and will be married and having monogamous sex from her mid-late 20s until the end of her life. This is fiction. Real life women have a range of protected or unprotected sexual experiences that last across a lifetime. Even in “monogamous” marriage- one of the fastest spreading STIs is HIV/AIDS in heterosexual married couples where one partner thought they were in a monogamous relationship. To describe a “normal” woman is impossible. And to profile any woman with the above story is also to describe anybody outside of that population as “deviant” subjects- who are also punished and shamed for being sluts or promiscuous. Women that are “more sexually active than average” or whose cervix is “abnormal” will require more pap smears than usual. Now, do you think a woman, who is more sexually active or who has an atypical cervix is the type of person to also tell their Doctor they just met that day at the clinic, “Oh hey, I have sex a lot more often than normal girls…or my cervix is weird- can I get a pap smear this year?” Yeah..no.
[2] Pap smears, HPV and each STI test is different but NOT unrelated. Finding abnormal cells in a pap smear is a precursor to screening for HPV which may lead to cervical cancer. The fact is that women are already NOT being tested or not getting the appropriate follow up for ANY of these tests. Annual screening for ALL these things are important.
If HPV were tested annually this regulation would be FINE. But many doctors will not test for HPV without FIRST having an abnormal Pap result. We do NOT need to create MORE institutional barriers for women. We need to 1) Ensure women are going to their doctor regularly, and 2) Ensuring sexually active women are getting HPV and STI screenings on a regular basis. Until this is a regular practice, this regulation does not do anything to promote women’s health. This is a medical practice PROBLEM coupled with women’s existing precarious access to healthcare improperly solved by scientific knowledge of how often tests need to be performed.
[3] PS: We are living in a time when Family Doctors, who would treat you and your family for the duration of your lifetime, do not exist anymore. By and large it is more profitable for a doctor to be in a clinic setting where they work fewer days a week and see a higher turnover of patients. This change in the medical system has made it such that people no longer have a doctor who properly understands their medical history. This means that people are not only getting checked less and treated less, but doctors are less likely to know WHO a person is and what medical options are best according to their medical and family history. To curb the impact of this change, we need to get tested annually.
Original Article
Source: melissafong.wordpress.com
Author: Melissa Fong
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